A blog dedicated both to celebrating the history of the Wolverines as well as following the exploits of the current Maize and Blue as they attempt to win another National Championship!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Red Zone Offense

Michigan was a perfect 5-5 in the Red Zone vs. CMU keeping intact its 100% mark for the season. Over the course of the first two games, Michigan is a combined 8-8 on Red Zone scoring opportunities. Against Vanderbilt, Michigan scored 2 touchdowns and a field goal on its Red Zone opportunities. Against CMU, Michigan scored 4 touchdowns and a field goal on its Red Zone opportunities. This is an indication that the offense is capitalizing on its chances. Go Blue!

2 Comments:

The RedZone numbers are an impressive statistic for the first two games, but let's face it: Michigan has played two cream-puff teams and an argument could be made that all of UM's FGs should have been TDs.

The key for the Notre Dame game will be to score touchdowns, not FGs.

UM Coach Lloyd Carr has a tendency to be satisfied with FGs and then rely heavily on the defense to save the day. This won't freaking work against Notre Dame's high-scoring offense.

DeBord will need to dust off the high-octane playbook and use ball-control offense to keep Brady Quinn, Darius Walker and WR Smardzija on the sidelines.

Astute observations. Michigan has scored touchdowns 75% of its red zone scoring chances thus far this season and I would like to see them keep that up against ND. That said, I think Rivas will probably be called on to try 3-4 field goal attempts during the course of the game. If Michigan gets a lead late in the 3rd quarter, Michigan will go into protect the ball and the lead mode and it will be up to the defense to hold the high powered Irish offense which is no easy task. This game is going to be exciting.